We have passed the mid-point of the G1 Climax and that means eliminations are starting to occur with the tour going into Fukuoka on Thursday.
In the A Block, it’s led by Kazuchika Okada who has gone undefeated after six matches with 12 points on top of the block with three matches remaining.
Okada’s big match is with Kota Ibushi on August 10th at Budokan Hall and presumably, Ibushi will be alive going into the final night of the block matches. For that to happen, Okada can win one more match but must lose against Sanada or EVIL prior to facing Ibushi. For Ibushi, who currently has eight points, he must be within two of Okada going into their match and would win the block by tying Okada and advancing based on the tiebreaker.
Hiroshi Tanahashi and KENTA also have eight points but also have losses to Okada and would not advance in the event of a tie with Okada.
Tanahashi has matches with Kota Ibushi, Bad Luck Fale, and Will Ospreay and must win at least two of them and either get a draw or win in the third match. If Okada wins one more match, Tanahashi is out. The same scenario exists for KENTA, who has matches with Fale, Ospreay, and Zack Sabre Jr. He must win at least two and at least a draw in the third match while Okada’s next win would eliminate him.
EVIL is holding on by a thread with six points. The only way he could win the block is if he wins his final three matches against Lance Archer, Okada, and Ospreay with Okada losing his last three matches, which isn’t likely. In the event of a tiebreaker, he would win over Kota Ibushi but not with KENTA or Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Lance Archer, Will Ospreay, Sanada, Zack Sabre Jr., and Bad Luck Fale are mathematically eliminated.
In the B Block, Jon Moxley is the leader with ten points and a record of 5-0.
No one is mathematically out of this block, but if Moxley defeats Toru Yano on Thursday then it would eliminate Yano, Shingo Takagi, Tetsuya Naito, and Jeff Cobb, who have all lost to Moxley and could only tie him as their best scenario.
This block has many more options as no one is so far out that it’s impossible for them to come back and win. The B Block participants have an additional match left compared to the A Block with four matches and eight available points for the members of that side of the tournament.
We will have our latest G1 Climax podcast out Thursday afternoon with a review of the Fukuoka show and the latest update on the standings for members of the POST Wrestling Café.
Thursday’s card from Fukuoka features the B Block matches and will be streaming at 5:30 am Eastern with the following matches:
*KENTA, Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors vs. Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro & Chase Owens
*Lance Archer & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Minoru Suzuki
*Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shota Umino & Ren Narita vs. Kota Ibushi, Toa Henare & Tomoaki Honma
*Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Sanada, Bushi & EVIL
*Shingo Takagi (2-3) vs. Jeff Cobb (2-3)
*Jon Moxley (5-0) vs. Toru Yano (2-3)
*Tetsuya Naito (2-3) vs. Juice Robinson (3-2)
*Jay White (2-3) vs. Taichi (2-3)
*Tomohiro Ishii (3-2) vs. Hirooki Goto (2-3)
A BLOCK:
*Kazuchika Okada – 12 points
*Hiroshi Tanahashi – 8
*KENTA – 8
*Kota Ibushi – 8
*EVIL – 6
*Will Ospreay – 4
*Zack Sabre Jr. – 4
*Sanada – 4
*Lance Archer – 4
*Bad Luck Fale – 2
B BLOCK:
*Jon Moxley – 10
*Tomohiro Ishii – 6
*Juice Robinson – 6
*Tetsuya Naito – 4
*Taichi – 4
*Toru Yano – 4
*Hirooki Goto – 4
*Jay White – 4
*Shingo Takagi – 4
*Jeff Cobb – 4
